For more than 100 years, Avio Aero has been at the forefront of the aerospace industry. Founded in 1908, in Turin, Italy, it was originally part of the Fiat Group, and was initially focused on developing engines and parts for the military aviation sector. After the end of the First World War, Avio Aero began to enter the burgeoning commercial aviation industry and established relationships with military and commercial partners, making them the largest aviation parts company in Italy. In 2013, Avio Aero was acquired by GE Aviation for 3.3 billion, one of the biggest foreign investment deals in an Italian company since the Global Financial Crisis. In January 2014, after more than 20 years of experience within the GE Group, Riccardo Procacci was appointed CEO and President of Avio Aero.
Riccardo is confident that Avio Aero will only continue its growth with G’Es investment in the company. After their acquisition of Avio Aero, GE announced they would be investing more than 1.1 billion into the business over the next 10 years to encourage accelerated growth. ”We’re taking the industrial GE culture and getting that together with the creativity of the Italian DNA of Avio Aero, with the rigour and execution that is what made GE the great company,” Riccardo says. “It is blending the two, and we are in the process of creating something that is going be unique from the cultural standpoint. We’re also adding all of the execution expertise that sits with GE. GE Aviation has about 50 plants around the world. Bringing all that expertise into Avio Aero is just going to exponentially increase the ability of the company.”
